Win 95 Install

I have an old IBM 486 Laptop with a external cd-rom drive that I want to install Win 95 on. After
it runs scandisk I get the error "Setup could not decompress this Setup (.cab) file and cannot
continue."
A little help would sure be appreciated.
Thanks jaguar.

 

I have a boot disk that has the drivers for the EXTENAL CD Rom
which seam to be working. I get the error after setup runs Scandisk

Tried to reset HD to LBA but Bios does to seam to have this option
This an old IBM 360C laptop Bios # 91G0375 DATE 10/14/94

 

Yeah, for some reason the system isn't reading the Win95 disk correctly. That means either your CD-ROM drivers are not configured right, are incompatible, or there's an error (scratch) on your CD.

 

I really appreciate all the help, unfortunately as of yet nothing has worked.
I copied the win95 cd to the HDD in a new directory and still get the same error.

 

Could be that something is wrong with one of your memory modules are you able to take some out or move them to a different slot ?

 

Well... this could a a few different things. I'm assuming you get the exact same error each time (setup.cab fails to extract).

Here's what I'd try:
1. .Cab files are just a form of .zip file, and most archive programs (WinZip, 7-Zip, etc.) can read them. Take your Windows 95 disk to a working computer, and manually extract setup.cab. You're just testing to see if the archive is OK. This should work, but it might not. This is an easy test, which is why I suggest it.

2. Check your BIOS settings on your laptop. Do you have Virus protection enabled? This might be preventing setup from overwriting the boot sector of your HDD.

3. Assuming you plan on doing a clean install, run FDISK, delete existing partitions, create a new partition, set the partition as active, reboot (important!), and format the drive. Then try to reinstall. If this is an old corporate laptop, you might see a second partition. That's probably a recovery partiton you shold delete now, too. You see them on modern manufactured consumer PCs now, too, but something that old only should if it was corporate.

4. Get a Windows 98 boot disk (bootdisk.com). Do a format /s. Now try to boot to the drive.

5. Download the diagnositc tools for your HDD. They will be on your HDD manufactorer's website. This should check if anything has failed on your HDD. If you've already tried 1, 2, 3, and 4 then I'd also try zero-filling (low-level formatting) the drive.

You can also try things like using the external CD n a different machine, instaling the OS on a different machine, installing from the external CD on a different machine, etc. After that, you're pretty much down to stuff like BIOS updates.

 

I thank all you wonderful people or the help, all though the problem was the "external CD Rom" drive I do thank all that responded to my request.

Thanks Again.